


a light that you give me

by mimosaeyes



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Gen, Vignette, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 02:57:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9363656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mimosaeyes/pseuds/mimosaeyes
Summary: The winter holidays in Paris as seen by our favourite superhero duo, themed “light” and with an emphasis on minor character interactions.Included inA Little Light Zine, now collecting donations for victims of Hurricane Matthew.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Everglow by Coldplay: “there’s a light that you give me when I'm in shadow / there’s a feeling you give me, an everglow”.
> 
> This is the first zine I’ve ever contributed to, and I could not ask for a better way for a fandom to come together <3 Only wish I’d done better with this.

Christmas sidles into Paris like an ember reigniting: barely noticeable at first, just tinsely shopfronts and frozen turkeys in the supermarket, then building up into street corner jingles and pop-up markets and thousands of lights along the Champs-Élysées. Bedecked trees and Hanukkah menorahs start appearing in every other apartment window, visible by pedestrians if they happen to peer upwards, toward the sky. 

But the city’s two superheroes watch it all unfold from the rooftops. They do small things for various Parisians they see preparing for the holiday season. There’s a kind of festive warmth in the little acts of kindness, that helps them defy the falling December temperatures. Well, that plus some choice knitwear and mugs of cocoa. 

Tonight, Ladybug swings by on her trusty yo-yo to help a smiling young woman in a wheelchair hang some mistletoe in her kitchenette doorway. She leaves her looking more sly than shy, much to Chat Noir’s amusement. True to form, he’s zipped off to buy a bag of roasted chestnuts in her absence, and so they stroll along the Seine together, sharing out the delicious treats and offering to help tourists take a picture with the Eiffel Tower in the backdrop. Sometimes the latter results in wide-eyed requests to take a selfie together instead, though.

Chat Noir is just handing back someone’s cellphone when he hears his name being called and turns toward the familiar voice. He’s greeted by the sight of Nathanaël, whose bright red hair is for once matched or even outshone by the shiny ball of a strap-on Rudolph nose he’s wearing. 

“Chat Noir!” Nathanaël says again, waving ecstatically and gesturing at — wow, is that a roadside stall he’s set up? With their other classmates Rose and Juleka, no less? Chat Noir bursts out into a huge grin and lopes over, grabbing his akuma-fighting partner by the hand as he does.

“Wow, did you make these yourselves?” he exclaims. Laid out over the table is a huge assortment of customised paper lanterns to attach to fairy lights. There are spherical, solid-colour ones mimicking classic Christmas tree decorations, and more complex designs to put over standing lightbulbs on a table, like a festive lamp. A handwritten sign, meticulously decorated in glitter by Rose probably, declares: _All proceeds go to charity! Give what you can :)_  

Juleka starts to say, “Nath did most of the artsy stuff, like composition and colours—” 

Immediately Nathanaël flushes and interrupts, “But the theme and the charity drive was Rose’s idea really—” 

Then Rose pipes up, “And Juleka turned out to be the best with the crêpe paper so—!” 

“Okay, okay,” Ladybug interjects laughingly, holding up both hands. “It sounds like you three worked well together. And they turned out great!” 

She resolves to come back as Marinette to buy some and donate to a good cause. Oddly enough, Tikki doesn’t seem to account for wallet storage space in her Ladybug suit.

With the two heroes standing in front of the stall, more people start craning their necks over the crowd to see the merchandise. Once Mireille and Théo, local weather-girl and known artist respectively, emerge from the mass of people and start admiring the paper lanterns, a sizeable mob starts to gather around the stall. Nathanaël, Juleka and Rose are too busy attending to them to notice as Ladybug and Chat Noir slip away, following the stream of pedestrians further along the river.

A seasonal outdoor ice-rink is in full swing some ways off, and as they crumple the empty chestnut bag and toss it in a nearby bin, they each pick out more of their classmates skating the widest circle around the rink, giving others a wide berth. Gliding along hand in hand in hand are Alix, Max and Kim: the former confidently letting Max steady himself against her impeccable sense of balance, the latter watching his best friend with an expression of amused wariness, and Max himself with a look approaching abject terror. 

The sight gets Ladybug smiling immediately. “Looks like they’ve set aside their differences for the festive season,” she comments, then freezes. Has she just given away how well she knows these apparently random citizens? 

To her mild surprise, Chat Noir heartily agrees, “Yeah!” before his eyes momentarily widen, and then relax again. “Um, I mean, since she was Timebreaker, and all, and she raced… that boy with the blond quiff in his hair.” 

“Right, that’s what I meant,” Ladybug quickly says. Phew. 

She watches her classmates go around the corner together. Alix is on the inner side, so she works harder at pulling Max through the curve, while Kim instinctively adjusts his posture so that he’s ready to support Max’s wavering weight if necessary. 

They clear the corner just fine, and she muses aloud, “It’s nice to see people being extra happy this time of year. And to make them happier, too. Their faces just light up.” 

He’s quiet for a long enough moment that she wonders if he has zoned out and hasn’t caught her words. But finally Chat Noir replies in a low voice, “I know what you mean.” 

It’ll be Christmas in just a few days’ time. They’re inching along to having been partners a full year, and they still don’t know each other’s first names. 

But they have this. They have Paris, and Parisians who spread love for one another in every action. And Paris has them. 

She doesn’t realise that she is watching his expression until a yelp from the rink startles her. Max has fallen onto the ice and is making a moue at his friends, who glance at each other helplessly. The surface is uneven sometimes. Falls happen. They stick their hands out to help him up. 

“It’s getting too cold for staying out on patrols this late,” Chat Noir says, without looking away or ceasing to smile faintly at the scene playing out before them. There’s a light in his eyes that he seems to want to pour out all over the world tonight. “Maybe one more rooftop run while we can get away with it?” 

She waits for him to look to her for an answer. “Of course, silly kitty,” she replies, and takes his hand.


End file.
